The Hunter and The Hunted
by Anonymous Hijink
Summary: Kiryuu Imia, younger sister of Zero, has been in hidding since she was injured in an attack by pureblood vampire, Sari. Almost four years later Imia returns to Hunting, and finds herself at Cross Academy faceing enemies from her past.
1. Prolouge

**_Okay , here is the Prolouge for _The Hunter and The Hunted, _this part of the story is completely set in the Vampire Knight universe, the Ghost Hunt charcters and events start appearing in the next chapter. __I don't own the manga and anime series' Ghost Hunt and Vampire Knight. Enjoy!_**

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><p><em>The dark night air swirled around the team of five as they stood in a circle by the blood stained building, their backs facing each other and weapons drawn as they faced off the enemy. They may have been outnumbered ten-to-one but they refused to just lay down and die. <em>

_Kiryuu Imia, the silver haired, lilac eyed, thirteen year old leader of the group, stood, gun in one hand, sword clenched tightly in the other, her psychic abilities being worked to the max as she reloaded her gun without opening herself up for attack so as to not draw attention from her team. Her family._

_Hina Rei, a fifteen year old girl with dark blue hair and copper coloured eyes, stood opposite her leader in the circle, her twin brother, Hina Kai, his hair and eyes a slightly lighter shade than his sister's, stood to her left. The twins wielded identical katana, preferring the traditional Japanese blade over the weightier style of sword that Imia wielded, neither carried guns._

_Frei, a quiet and detached blond haired, green eyed boy of eighteen, the oldest of the group, had his two identical hand guns drawn on two of his targets, no emotion on his face, even as he glanced over his shoulder at his leader to see Imia slowly being forced away from the group as her ammunition supply ran out, forcing her to rely solely on her significant store of spiritual ability and her sword. Frei cursed quietly and signalled to his team mates what was happening._

_Frei was joined in cursing by the last member of the group, sixteen year old Kurai Akira, her long black hair billowing in the slight breeze while her eyes, the same colour as the blood that had splattered onto her exposed arms and tank top, glittered in the moon light. Akira was the second in command of the group, and when Imia was separated from the group her orders where followed to the letter without hesitation._

"_Rei, Kai, you're together." She ignored Frei's muttered 'As always' and simply continued after sending a brief glare at her friend. "Take out as many as you can, and _please_ try and contact Imia." The twins nodded absently as they moved to stand back to back, twin katana always facing the enemy. Akira turned then to Frei, conveying her orders with just a glance._

_The tall teen nodded, showing that he understood what was wanted of him even as he moved to press his back to hers. _

_They were all used to fighting in pairs, even Imia, though her partner had died on a previous ambush by the enemy. She'd gone to her parents home for over a week without contacting her team, behaviour that Frei suspected would have continued had he not gone over there himself to personally snap her out of her funk. She hadn't let him into her old room, where she'd been hiding, until after he'd told her of his past. They both knew that she wouldn't tell the others._

_Kai's shriek brought Akira and Frei's attention to where the twins were. His copper eyes were distant, his body operating on instinct alone as enemies continued to swarm to them, and continued to be felled by the deadly sharp edges of the Shikyoyaba, the death blades, the twin katana. "Imia's in trouble! They were waiting for her to separate from us to attack her without any of us stepping in to help her!"_

_At Kai's words the only thought going through Frei's head was a long string of curses. So distracted by his worry for his best friend was he that he barely noticed the distinctive brush of wind against his side that signalled the passing of one of Akira's daggers._

_The four members of the team that remained were all silent except for the songs of their weapons and the screams of their enemies as they fell, each silently praying that Imia would be alright on her own._

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><p><em>Imia let her instincts guide her as she felt her body tire from the constant use of her PK and the long battle that she was fighting. The Saigo no Shikyo, the Final Death, was growing heavy in her hands, she'd long since returned her gun to its holster on her left thigh. Another enemy attempted to sneak up behind her but was stopped by the shield that she'd formed around her back at the same time she was forced away from the rest of her team.<em>

_Knowing that her shield wouldn't last much longer, the youngest Kiryuu sibling gathered what of her spiritual energy she wasn't using into a tight sphere that hovered serenely in front of her, waiting for the moment that her shield would drop. Relying on her instincts she lashed out with Saigo no Shikyo a final time before sheathing the silver blade in its sheath upon her left hip in order to protect it from the explosion she planned on releasing._

_There was a sound like shattering glass, and Imia knew that her shield had just collapsed, sparing barely a second to take a deep breathe, the thirteen year old released the psychic energy she had collected and condensed into a sphere barely the size of her palm. _

_The explosion that insured knocked her into the wall of a building, she gasped at the pain that laced her body and did her best to ignore the blood that was dyeing her pale silver hair crimson and grey, while vampires were vaporised all around her. Thick bruises and small burn marks were begging to form on her arms and hands, but she paid them no head as she forced herself to stand despite her broken leg and sprained ankle._

Something doesn't feel right. _She thought tiredly. Her hands drifting to her weapons as she tried to determine what was wrong with her surroundings. Her answer was given to her when she felt a sword slice into the skin of her lower back._

_Sparing no time to truly process the fact she leapt forward, twisting as she did so to face her attacker, sword drawn and ready to carve them into pieces as it had so many before. The form that met her eyes caused her to still. Before her stood a vampire with crimson hair and eyes that glittered like Rubies. This was a vampire that Imia had seen before and had to focus on the pain that was the gash on her lower back to stop herself from drifting in her memories of the last time she'd seen this particular vampire._

_A smirk was crawling its way across the vampire's lips, and it was enough to make the Hunter shiver. "Well now, it appears that I have you to thank for the destruction of my puppets." Her voice was like ice, a distinct contrast to the flames of her hair and eyes, with a faint Russian accent._

_Giving a 'humph' as she brushed back strands of silver-dyed-red hair, Imia moved into a more subtle stance. "Not really. There's still a few running around that managed to avoid the explosion, and then there are those that my friends have been dealing with." Lilac eyes narrowed faintly. "But it seems that we've forgotten our manners. I'm Kiryuu Imia, Vampire Hunter. You?" The question was more for politeness and any bounty on the vampires head, her contact camera was still working perfectly, as was the small recorder that had been implanted into her earring, there recordings would be enough proof of the vampire to warn the other Hunter's, than anything else, she knew who this vampire was, to gain the bounty for the death of the vampire if she were able to kill it, though, she _would_ need it's name to be given, as nobody knew that she had seen this vampire before, and she had no intentions of revealing when she had seen the crimson haired beast before, she, and it almost pained Imia to think of this creature as female, was included in being in the rather large group that didn't know that the teenager had seen the vampire and knew perfectly well who she was, the vampire also didn't know who she was._

_Crimson hair fluttered as the female vampire stepped backwards at the sound of the Hunter's name. "Kiryuu? I thought they were all dead." The words were more hissed than whispered, and if Imia were a less experienced Hunter she'd likely of taken several steps backwards out of pure fear._

You'd know, wouldn't you? _Imia thought hatefully, she didn't even need to focus on not projecting the thought as she'd used all of her psychic energy to form the explosion that had killed so many of the vampire's puppets. "Well, we're not. Now answer my question, Puppet master! Who are you?"_

_It was with a huff that the vampire answered. "Sari, The Puppet _Mistress_."_

"_Well, Sari, The Puppet Mistress, would you like to get this show on the road? Or would you rather wait until other Hunter's arrive?" The youngest Kiryuu sibling felt no small amount of pleasure at having so easily angered the vampire._

_There was a smirk crawling across Sari's lips again, this one unsettled Imia as much as the first time she'd seen a blood crazed Level E, she'd been six at the time and on her own._

"_Perhaps I'll just wait for my poison to take hold of you and have you destroy the Hunter's Association." The Puppet Mistress chuckled as she launched herself forwards, her black sword meeting Imia's silver a mere half second later, and Imia cursed silently at the fact that she was facing such a fast vampire without the added boost of her PK. _

This is going to be hard. Harder than anything else that I've faced over the years._ She thought as she blocked three more strikes from the vampire, keeping her form as still as possible._


	2. Case 1 A Highschool Huanting Part 1

**Well, this is the first part of the first case at SPR, it was going to end up way to long if I put it all together into one file. I spologise if Naru or Lin seem out of character, but this is my first time trying to write them. Mai will have a very different personality, which I'll explain at the end of the chapter for anyone who doesn't quite understand from the actual text.**

**So I don't own Ghost Hunt or Vampire Knight (Whose charecters don't really make an appearance in this chapter.) and hope you enjoy. Reviews are always apreciated.**

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><p><strong><span>Case 1 - A Highschool Haunting Part 1 - Enter SPR<span>**

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><p>Kiryuu Imia's eyes fluttered open as the faint light of dawn brushed past the curtains of her bedroom. The now fifteen year old brushed back the covers with a heavy sigh, her figure flashing with a faint blood red glow as her feet contacted the cold wooden floor. Silver locks of hair darkened to brown as lilac eyes became the colour of melted chocolate, her features softening from the distinctive sharpness of a Kiryuu to something more like the gentle face of her friend, Hina Rei.<p>

A single tear escaped her eye as the teenager crossed the room to the bathroom, shedding her nightdress as she passed the door; she caught a glimpse of the tattoo on her lower back as she passed the mirror. The tattoo, the emblem of the Hunter's Association, was the only thing that she couldn't hide with the use of her Psychometry, probably dew to the nature of what it did. Quickly shaking her head, Imia showered quickly and avoided looking in the mirror for the rest of the time it took her to leave the bathroom, dressed in her school uniform for that days' classes.

Still towelling her hair dry, Imia walked over to her book bag to insure that she had everything that she needed, including a bottle of Aspirin, knowing from experience that she'd need them by the time the day was over. Glancing briefly at her watch and taking a deep breathe, the girl dropped the towel she had been using into the laundry basket and threw her bag over her shoulder and left her bedroom after a long look at the two photos on her nightstand. They were both of a group of people, though each photo depicted different groups. One was of five people, each with varying shades of silver hair and purple or blue eyes. A young girl of no more than eleven stood at the front with a large smile on her young face, her hair was the lightest of the group, appearing almost white with how the light hit it, her eyes were also lighter than the rest, a pale lilac. Behind the girl stood a pair of identical twins of roughly thirteen, while their hair and eyes were the same shades of silver/grey and violet, there were subtle differences between the two boys, ones hair was longer, its tips brushing at his shoulders, his skin having a fainter tan and his face still more childlike. Standing at the back were a man and a woman, the mans hair was short, barely covering his ears, and his eyes were a pale blue with only a hint of purple around the edge of the iris, were hidden behind a pair of reading glasses, the woman's light grey hair was short, barely long enough to brush the back of her neck, with eyes that glittered like Amethysts in the lighting of the living room where the photo had been taken. The second photo was of six people, each bundled in thick jackets and scarves, more than one of them was wearing gloves. The same girl from the other photo stood at the fore again, though she appeared to be a year or so older than she had been in the other. Beside the girl stood a set of twins, of thirteen or fourteen, one on each side of her, the female twin stood on her left, long dark blue hair tied into a high ponytail as copper eyes sparkled with mischief, her twins hair and eyes were barely a shade lighter where he stood on the younger girls right, an arm wrapped lightly around her shoulders. Just behind the silver haired girl stood a boy of no more than thirteen with brilliant amber eyes and hair that was almost bronze in the faint light of a dying sun. On the boys right was tall teen of approximately sixteen with blond hair and green eyes, his face was impassive despite the pile of mushed-up snow that had fallen on his head from a tree not long before the photo was taken. The final member of the group stood on the opposite side of the young teen to the impassive blond, her midnight black hair brushing lightly at slightly hunched shoulders, her crimson eyes held a soft expression despite the serious lines of her face.

Tearing her eyes from the photos Imia hurried out of her room and the front door of the apartment with only a granola bar for breakfast, she'd barley remembered to grab her coat on her way out the door. Acute hearing and her recently recovered empathy told her that her friends were moving behind her in an attempt to surprise her, a mischievous smile crawled onto Imia's face as she ducked around the next corner to wait for her friends to make their way past so that she could turn the tables on them.

The two teenage girls hurried around the corner only a minute or so after their friend and so were very surprised when they couldn't see said friend anywhere. The cold breathe on the back of their necks startled them almost as much as the whispered 'boo'. With identical squeals the two teenagers jumped at least a foot in the air, twisting to see a grinning teenaged girl with shoulder length dark brown hair and chocolate coloured eyes.

"Mai!" They both groaned, causing their friend to laugh and move past them, grabbing an arm of each of them.

Tanayama Mai was the alias that Imia had taken when she went into hiding, she'd set up an entire past history for herself to use, keeping it as close to her own past as was possible. "Oh, don't be spoil sports, we all know that you were planning on doing the same to me." She stated, still smiling her mischievous smile, which neither of her friends missed.

Glancing nervously at each other they both gulped. "What are you planning, Mai?" Nanahime asked, her dark eyes showing apprehension, despite the relative calmness of her voice.

The disguised teen giggled and gestured with her chin at the school as it came into view, from the angle that the three friends where approaching from they could see a black van pulling up in front of the old building. Under silent agreement the friends hurried towards the school to find out what was going on.

Even as far from the van as they were, Imia could sense the pain and loss that was radiating from the van and its occupants. Whoever was in that van had obviously lost someone very important to them, she'd felt the emotions so often before, both in herself and those around her, that she was almost numb to the emotions themselves, that didn't stop her from recognising them and there sources.

An image, one unfamiliar to the girl, appeared in Imia's mind for a moment and she knew by instinct that the black haired teenager was the reason for the pain and loss that was emanating from the van. The impression of the memory from which the image had come told the young psychic all that she needed to know, and she forced the memories that weren't her own from her mind for later contemplation. After all she had other things to worry about, like the people in the van and what they were doing at her school, and then eight hours of classes and ghost stories after that.

Letting her arms unhook from her friends Imia reached into her book bag and drew out the bottle of Aspirin, shaking two of the pills out into her hand and swallowing them dry, she'd grown so used to them over the years that she didn't need water to wash them down anymore. By the time the bottle of tablets was returned to her book bag she and her friends found themselves standing beside the van as two men stepped out of it, one of maybe sixteen with blue eyes that were dark with grief, the other was in his early to mid twenties with his hair covering one of his grey eyes. The two had been conversing in English but stopped when they saw the trio of teenage girls standing on the sidewalk.

As neither of the men seemed to be starting any conversation, and both Nanahime and Kyoko were to busy staring at the two, who Imia admitted where handsome in a detached sort of way, it seemed to fall to the young Kiryuu to start whatever conversation was going to take place. "Hi, I'm Tanayama Mai and these are my friends, Hiragana Kyoko and Hikari Nanahime. Do you mind me asking what you're doing here?"

The younger of the men made a thoughtful sound, as though deciding what to tell them. "My name is Shibuya Kazuya, and this Lin Koujo." Shibuya, and Imia knew that wasn't the teens real name, she herself was using an alias and knew from the way it was said that it was a name not quite foreign to the boy but also not one that he had used enough to grow comfortable with using in regards to himself, gestured vaguely at the taller man, who barely inclined his head and remained silent as he walked around to the back of the van. "Why do you ask why we're here? It can't be that unusual for people to come here, after all, it's a school."

Imia rolled her eyes in exasperation at the condescending tone the boy had used, nothing failed to irritate her more than people thinking that they could talk down to her, no matter how much older and supposedly wiser they were. "Yes, this is a high school, and while you appear to be about high school age, if that was why you and your friend are here you would have parked further up." This was said with a finger pointing at the main school building and a blank face. "This is the old school building, nobody comes here anymore, the building isn't structurally sound and there have been a number of deaths and injuries on site. That's why they stopped the demolition project."

Two gaping black haired men greeted the end of her explanation and her friends simply shook their heads, having grown used to her random explanations of even randomer subjects. This was more-or-less normal for the teenagers, they were starting to think that there was nothing that could surprise them, other than Imia in a vengeful mood.

Quickly closing his mouth Kazuya cleared his throat and examined the three girls. From the lack of reaction from Tanayama's friends he imagined that this was relatively normal for them. It would appear that Tanayama was something of an anomaly, and if there was one thing the psychic researcher found more interesting than the paranormal, it was a puzzle of a person. From the back of the van Lin sighed heavily, knowing that his ward liked little more than someone that confused him, especially when said someone didn't seem to care for the boys appearance.

"You seem to know a lot about the building, Tanayama-san." Shibuya stated.

Imia smirked faintly, a devilish glint in her eye that made her friends fear for the handsome boy's safety. They after all knew of her reputation to take on any of the members of the school's kendo team barehanded. "Is there a question in there somewhere, Shibuya-san?"

Azure eyes narrowed in annoyance at the question. "And what if there was?"

"You're in for a long day, now kindly stop avoiding my original question. What are you doing here?" Imia stated, loosing the small smirk that had formed on her lips to reform into a very serious expression, the breeze that brushed past them, ruffling at their hair and clothes went almost entirely ignored, asides from Imia brushing a lock of her hair behind her ear when it was blown into her face, in the process revealing the ruby drop earrings that were hooked through her earlobes. Surprisingly neither Shibuya or Lin commented on the obviously expensive jewellery, Kyoko and Nanahime already knew all about them and the story that went along with them, and both sighed silently at the fact that, unless either of them did something to seriously piss their friend off, chances were that they would both make it to the end of the day with nothing worse than a bruised ego.

The tall Chinese man muttered to his companion in English, not realising that Imia could understand and even speak English at the same level as a native. "Just tell them, Noll. It's obvious that they aren't going to just let it drop."

Chocolate coloured eyes narrowed dangerously as their owner shifted into what her friends knew was a stance that she'd used to demolish the entire kendo team, at once. These two men where treading on _very_ thin ice, and there were cracks surrounding them in every direction. "It's considered polite to speak in a language that those around you can understand, Lin-san." Imia said, her voice like ice, twisting the honorific to make it clear that she didn't like or respect the one who carried it.

Apparently the tall man was smart enough to realise that the teenager, while appearing to be harmless, was about to become very dangerous if something wasn't done to calm her done, fast. "My apologies, Tanayama-san. I often forget that this is Japan."

"In that case, I suggest remembering the fact in the future. Now I believe Shibuya-san was about to answer my question." A highly irate teenage psychic all but hissed.

Shibuya, listening both to his companion and the less-than-subtle warning in the girls' voice, explained why they were at this particular high school at this time.

Kyoko watched her volatile friend carefully from the corner of her eye as Shibuya explained the situation. Her friend was slowly relaxing out of her stance, her shoulder muscles loosening as her knees straightened so that Mai once again stood at her not inconsiderate full height, which while still less than either of the men, was still enough to be relatively intimidating to the two men. Not that height was much of a factor in a fight when Mai was involved, the kendo team could easily attest to that, providing they weren't all to scared to talk about it. Kyoko had seen her friend take down giants of no less than eight feet on no fewer than three occasions, and Nanahime had seen such an occurrence on three separate occasions. Mai herself was barely four feet in sneakers.

Letting a silent sigh of relief escape her, Imia nodded to the two men in thanks before departing for the school with barely a polite 'goodbye'. While still wary of the two men, she now knew that they were unlikely to attempt to harm the students of the school. She could only hope that they wouldn't look too closely at her or her past; there were far too many secrets that they simply could not know.

Kyoko watched as her friend walked off towards the main school building, Mai had a habit of turning up early to everything, classes, club meetings, even her summer job at one of the local cafés. They'd often joke that Mai was going to be early to her own funeral, the girl in question had just sat there and laughed along with the rest of their class at the comment.

Realising that she and Nanahime were now alone with two handsome men she blushed slightly. Mai was the one who was always able to hold a conversation with the most handsome men without even batting an eyelash, though she never explained how, and it made every girl at school envious of the young brunette. Sharing a brief glance with Nanahime, Kyoko and her friend made a quick excuse of before school activities and hurried along the sidewalk after their friend, who had already turned onto the long path to the front doors.

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><p>A mass of relieved groans filled the History classroom as the bell for lunch sounded, Imia couldn't help chuckling at her classmate's obvious relief at the end of History. With a deep, rattling buzz, the intercom came to life, relaying a series of names that were being called to a number of locations. Frowning faintly as Tanayama Mai was called to the front office; Imia shared a glance with Mitashi Hiro, one of her friends from the kendo club.<p>

"Can you let Kyoko and Hime know that I'll meet them outside the gym after classes Hiro-kun?" She asked.

Her friend blushed slightly as he almost always did at the mention of Kyoko, but nodded in agreement as they both collected their books and hurried out of the room, Imia in the direction of the office, and Hiro towards the cafeteria. The young Kiryuu simply collected a granola bar from her bag, having a feeling that she wasn't going to be getting to the cafeteria for lunch today, she also took the opportunity to down another Aspirin, the pounding on her temples was getting worse again, and likely wouldn't ease until long after she had returned to her apartment.

Greeting some of her friends as they past in the halls it took Imia barely five minutes to reach the main office. She nodded faintly to Shibuya and Lin as she past them on her way to the receptionist, who greeted her warmly and told her to go through to the Principles office. Eyebrows creasing in confusion, the teenager thanked the receptionist and hurried through the door that she knew from past experiences led to the Principle's office. Catching sight of the three men sitting in the office already, Imia silently prayed to whatever deity that cared to listen that this meeting didn't take all day or kill her.

The Principle, Sato Higori, a man in his late thirties, sat behind his desk with her Language teacher, Hiroshi-sensei, who was in his early forties and taught first and second year English and Japanese grammar, had made himself comfortable in an armchair in the corner of the room. The last man, Imia knew only through reputation, Tanaka Shigure, the head of a large publishing company, his daughter, Kitani, was a year Imia's senior, and a good friend of the young psychic who always turned up at the little club that she and her friends had set up for ghost stories and their like. Taking a deep breathe, Imia cleared her throat to gain the attention of the three men.

Turning towards the door, Hiroshi smiled at the young teenager who stood, waiting politely to be acknowledged by he and his companions. "Ah, Tanayama-san. Come, take a seat and make yourself comfortable."

The girl smiled faintly and made her way over to an empty chair near Hiroshi, nodding as she was introduced to the publisher even before she reached her seat. The old teacher had to admire his favourite student's composure, most other's would have been squealing or unsettled by the presence of someone of Tanaka's fame, but not Tanayama Mai, she just took it all in stride and accepted the fact that he was there without any fanfare. She truly was something else, something special.

Outwardly calm, Imia found herself panicking slightly inside, she could imagine why she'd been called to the office now, and it didn't require her to use Psychometry, though she did, simply to check. Something in one of her assignments had caught the eyes of Tanaka.

The meeting progressed quickly enough, though the bell did sound to signal the end of the lunch period, and arrangements' were made for her piece of work to be expanded on and published. She would turn the short story that she'd submitted for a class assignment into a full, chaptered story, to be published under a second alias, Modoki Enma. Imia knew this would mean even less sleep than she was getting now, and likely less time to be out with her friends, but she knew that if she could set up a good enough schedule for herself she would manage to continue to get good grades and have a social life while getting an acceptable number of hours sleep and completing her little project before the deadline of July 1st, without killing herself.

As Tanaka left the office with a contented smile and confidant gait, the young Kiryuu turned to her teacher and principle, raising an eyebrow in question, the eyebrow quickly dropped as Shibuya and Lin entered the office, she could see where this was going.

Twenty minutes of negotiations and a disgruntled teenage boss and Chinese man who looked ready to strangle someone later, and Imia was set to shadowing the Psychic Research team. _Why do I feel as though I'm going to become Shibuya's personal assistant by the end of the week? _Imia thought to herself as she eased herself out of the seat that she'd been sitting in for the better part of the last hour and a half. Her temporary boss had stormed out of the room in quite a temper barely a minute before, Lin, looking twice as angry and muttering derogatory words under his breathe in Chinese, had left soon after with barely a curt nod at the man who had hired both of the researcher's.

Throwing a polite bow at Sato-sensei and Hiroshi-sensei, Imia hurried out of the office with a glance at her watch, cursing quietly as she noticed she had five minutes until the end of the period, not enough time to gleam anything useful from the science lab, so she simply made her way over to the art building at a leisurely pace, enjoying the view of the grounds as she walked past the windows.

The rest of the school day passed uneventfully, as Imia's last lessons that day were different to those of her friends. "Kyoko! Hime!" The young teen called in greeting as she neared the gym doors after classes. Both friends turned and waved in return before pushing open the gym doors so as to prevent their friend from simply tearing right through them. Smiling gratefully at them both, Imia didn't have the time to even thank them, the teen hurried into the girls' locker room to change out of her uniform and into the white kendo gear that she had been outfitted with at the begging of the year when she began attending the meetings of the kendo club.

Kyoko shook her head fondly as her friend hurried into the locker room with barely a smile and a wave, she knew that the girl was always in a hurry but this was getting utterly ridiculous. There was a gentle crunching sound, which Kyoko had come to associate with shoes contacting with the grass that was outside the gym, and the two teens turned to see both the black haired men from that morning, and Mitashi Hiro making their ways over to the gym. Poor Hiro was attempting to hold a conversation with the black haired teenage boss of Shibuya Psychic Research, but the older teen just kept ignoring the brunette and the older man was as silent as the grave. Taking pity on her classmate and friend she waved, catching the attention of both teens. Hiro's face darkened a shade, causing Nanahime to giggle beside her, as he hurried over gratefully, the other two following slowly.

"Mai's just gone in, Hiro-kun; if you hurry she might actually go easy on you." The boy nodded and thanked them both before hurrying into the gym and off to the boys' locker room to change. Turning her attention back to Shibuya and his assistant with an inward sigh, Kyoko did her best not to turn scarlet. "Can we help you with something, Shibuya-san?"

The boy raised an elegant eyebrow before he answered the question. "We're looking for Tanayama. As I recall you two were with her when we met this morning."

Sighing heavily, Kyoko nodded as she and her friend gestured the two men to follow them into the gym, which had been steadily filling with students and even a few of the teachers and even a girl in a kimono, and a blonde haired boy who was sitting beside the principle looking around curiously. "We were. Mai, well she has a meeting with the kendo club in private and a public practise directly after that, that's what all of these people are here for, the practise of a high school team that has left professionals' gaping hours later. No joke."

Taking their regular seats near the front of the stands, neither girl was surprised to see two extra spaces near them for the two men. It was common knowledge that anyone who came in with the friends of Tanayama Mai was big news in one circle or the other and would, without question, get the best seats in the building. Friends of Tanayama Mai would always get the same seats, right at the front of the stands.

The sound of quiet talking died instantly as the kendo team walked out onto the main gym floor, lead by the white clad figure of Mai. Walking behind the young girl were the rest of the regular team clad in black, and bringing up the rear were the irregular team members clad in grey. There was a sharp intake of breathe from the entire audience as three more figures walked onto the floor wearing dark blue protective gear.

A gentle nudge of Shibuya's elbow brought Nanahime's eyes to him for a brief moment. "The one in white is Mai, the group in black behind her is the team and the ones in grey behind them are the irregular members who fill in for members of the team when they can't fight." Swallowing heavily she continued her explanation in a small voice. "The three in dark blue are professional kendo practitioners who are here to either challenge the team or more likely Mai herself."

Kazuya hummed quietly at the information and returned his gaze to the gym floor where the figure in white, Tanayama from what the girls friend had said, was now standing opposite the three figures in dark blue, a shinai in each of her hands while the three professionals spoke amongst themselves before one of them stepped forward, taking a single shinai from the stand. The two bowed to each other before tapping their shinai against each others and taking relaxed stances. At the referees call they both began circling their opponent, Tanayama was blocking the occasional strike from her opponent but had yet to launch her own attack yet. "Is this normal?" He questioned quietly, almost afraid to break whatever spell had been placed over the crowed. Both of Tanayama's friends nodded as the fight continued on below them, the combatants still circling each other.

Tanayama's footing changed then and she moved forward swishing both of her shinai in synchronisation, moving one into a defensive position and the other moving to attack her blue clad opponent. The crowed scarcely dared to breathe as the match truly began. Strikes were exchanged at lightning paces and the footwork was just as fast, if not faster. They both appeared almost to be dancing as they moved around each other, strikes being exchanged every step of the way, neither had yet hit their opponent, simply meeting shinai to shinai. But something in the air told Kazuya, and the rest of the crowed if their complete stillness was anything to go by, that it was going to change any moment now.

Kyoko stilled at the moment of silence that filled the gym, she knew what this silence meant, she'd seen her friend in enough kendo matches over the three years that she'd known her to be able to just _feel_ Mai's intentions form the faint emotion she could feel rolling off of the brunette, it had grown easier over the last few months. To the teenager the intentions of her friend were terrifying, what she was about to do was dangerous, even for the best of kendo fighters. If Mai was off in her calculations by even the faintest point, her opponent could be seriously injured, it was why such a movement was often reserved for the highest ranked kendoka, which Mai was not, though not because she lacked the skills, it was because she was young, and deemed to be lacking experience. Hiro had told both she and Nanahime that when the captain of one of the local kendo teams had said such to the girl, she'd excused herself from the meeting, when she was found five minutes later by Kuroshi, who had been kept late after class, she had been laughing, her head in her hands, and tears rolling uncontrollably down her face. She had had surges of uncontrollable giggles all the next week.

Exchanging significant glances with Nanahime, Kyoko leant forward in her seat, her hands gripping the railing that separated the stands from the floor. Shibuya had his mouth open to ask something, but Kyoko shushed him. "What you're about to see is something you are unlikely to see again in a school match." The black haired boy closed his mouth then and returned his full attention to the match as Kyoko whispered to herself, "I hope you know what you're doing, Mai-chan."

The faint twitch of Mai's foot was all the warning that was given before she once more moved to attack her opponent, right shinai and then left. She continued to strike at her opponent for almost a full minute before she launched a slash with her right shinai. Her opponent noticed too late that the shinai in the girls' left hand was positioned perfectly for a thrust.

Tanayama gently pushed the shinai in her left hand forward to connect lightly with the throat of her opponent, who was too shocked to move, like most of the other people in the gym. The referee, standing off to the side as he had been, was gaping faintly that a high school student, a fifteen year old girl, had defeated a professional kendoka with such a dangerous move.

Clearing his throat, he raised the flag corresponding to the girl into the air. "Match Tanayama!" He announced, breaking the spell of silence that had enveloped the room. Cheers and applause filled the air, even Shibuya and Lin clapping along with the crowd.

The white clad teen barely acknowledged the cheers; instead throwing the shinai in her left hand towards where her instincts told her Kuroshi was standing in the group of black clad students. Without turning she knew that the boy had caught the weapon and was making his way onto the field, the two remaining professionals took a shinai each and walked out to meet them, the older, more experienced kendoka positioning himself opposite to Imia, while the other stood before Kuroshi. Imia smiled behind the wire mesh of her mask, they wouldn't know what hit them.

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><p>Walking out of the gym with the majority of the kendo team, Imia felt herself relaxing more and more. Her life hadn't been easy, but she had known it wouldn't be from the instant that she was first conscious of her own being. She remembered what her mother had told her after she'd seen her first Level E, <em>'A good Hunter wants to protect the innocent, but a great Hunter must experience harsh times and choose to protect the piece and lives, Human, Hunter and Vampire.'<em>. It had been decided along time ago that she would protect everyone that she could, but it was only a few years ago that Imia had chosen to protect the peace.

A franticly waving Kyoko caught Imia's attention, and after nodding at Kyoko to show that she'd seen her and would join her shortly, Imia hurriedly said her goodbyes to the kendo team and walked calmly over to her friend, knowing that it would irritate the black haired boy standing beside her. Anything that could irritate Shibuya the Jerk was good in her books.

Forcing a smile onto her face Imia greeted her friend happily, totally ignoring the Psychic Researcher. "Kyoko! Hi. Where's Hime? I thought you two wanted to grill me about what the principal wanted with me at lunch?" Her voice was curious, just as it almost always was when she asked a question.

Her friend giggled and rolled her eyes, pointing at the watch that Imia held in her hand, having yet to return it to her wrist. Glancing at the time on the watch, chocolate coloured eyes widened slightly in understanding. "She said that she can grill you tomorrow. Anyway, Shibuya-san wanted to talk to you."

With a roll of her eyes Imia muttered quietly to herself, "Sure he did." Before sighing in exhaustion and turning towards the man in question. "Sorry, I didn't see you there; you wanted me for something, Shibuya?"

A black eyebrow twitched in irritation but he answered none the less. "Yes, since you're going to be assisting me on this case you can make yourself useful and help get the equipment set up tonight."

"Sure thing, Shibuya. Is everything in your van still? I'll catch up with you and Hime tomorrow, before afternoon classes, OK?" The last was directed at Kyoko, who nodded. Shibuya simply hummed in response and led the girl towards the van where Lin was waiting, box in hand.

Heaving a heavy sigh and resigning herself to her fate, Imia took a box from the van, paying no attention to the weight, and followed the tall Chinese man into the building, placing the box where he indicated before returning to gather the next one. It wasn't so bad, Imia decided, as she placed the last box with the rest of them, sure the work was silent, but it was a relaxing sort of silent. The shelves and monitors were the first thing up, Lin left to set up some cameras in the areas reporting the most activity, while Imia was sent to take temperatures.

Returning to the base area, the teenaged girl handed over the temperature recordings of each area she had been sent to too her temporary boss. Shibuya hummed over the temperatures for a moment before dismissing Imia for the night, the girl found herself thanking every deity that listened for that.

"I expect you here at five tomorrow morning." Shibuya called after her, and she pivoted to level a rather impressive glare on the black haired teen, catching the faint twitching of Lin's lips out of the corner of her eye as she turned to continue her way home, making certain to let her bag connect with Lin's arm as she passed, she had at least half her books for school in there, so it weighed a far amount.

"I'm home." She whispered to her empty apartment as she opened the door, slipping the key back into her skirts pocket. Placing her bag on the table she walked into the kitchen and started her dinner before heading for a quick shower.

When she returned to the kitchen, the rice was almost finished and the vegetables where ready, the pork strips only needing a few more minutes before they, too, were ready. So she waited patiently for the food to be finished before taking what she would eat that night out to the table so she could look over what she needed to put into her schedule if she expected to get everything done and keep her grade averages, all while working for Shibuya around classes.

It was almost midnight before she had finished drawing up a schedule and completed the homework that she needed for classes tomorrow, so her dishes were left for the morning as she collected her books back into her bag and entered her bedroom, collapsing under the covers as soon as she was near enough to the bed to do so. Her dreams that night were anything but pleasant.

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><p><strong>Yep, Tanyama Mai is Kiryuu Imia. Unless she's beging observedadressed by another character, I'll be usein Imia in the text. Kyoko and Nanahime won't be making big apearances in the upcoming chapters, but they will appear again, as will the kendo team.**

**So until nexxt chapter, this is Anonymous Hijink, have a good day, and leave a review!**


	3. Case 1 A Highschool Haunting Part 2

**Okay so this is Case 1 Part 2 for The Hunter and The Hunted and we're starting things off with a recap of the last piece of Part 1 then Imia's dream-that's-more-of-a-flashback. So I'm going to say enjoy and I'll see you at the end of the chapter.**

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><p><em>It was almost midnight before she had finished drawing up a schedule and completed the homework that she needed for classes tomorrow, so her dishes were left for the morning as she collected her books back into her bag and entered her bedroom, collapsing under the covers as soon as she was near enough to the bed to do so. Her dreams that night were anything but pleasant.<em>

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><p><strong>Case<strong>**1 - A High School Haunting Part 2 - Forging Bonds**

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><p><em>The scent of blood flooded the air around her as Imia watched the scene, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened, her past rarely left her alone. Six people, ranging in age from twelve to sixteen were standing back to back in a small circle, a high cold laughter filled the snow covered clearing, blood covered bodies, Hunter and Vampire alike, dotted the snow. The six teens and the owner of the laughter were the only living creatures in the entire forest, making the dream, memory, even more terrifying than it had been when she'd lived the scene the first time. She'd been focussed on her team and getting out of there alive, she hadn't really cared about the local fauna.<em>

_Again the cruel laughter came, the youngest members of the team twitched faintly, well, the Hina twins and Kotaru did, Imia's past self just cast out her senses and let her eyes flicker around the clearing again. They each had their weapons drawn, Saigo no Shikyo held tightly in a two handed grip in the twelve year old memories hands, Kotaru had his kunai connected to his wrists by long chains that clipped to iron gauntlets that acted as both sheaths for his kunai and protection from anything that could, or dared, get to close to him, Rei and Kai had the Shikyoyaba in firm grips that still allowed easy flexibility, Frei's gun was held at his side, his green eyes closed, listening to his instincts and Akira had a dagger in each hand, her stance mimicking Kotaru's._

"_Well, well, well. A group of kiddies shouldn't be out here all alone, now should they? Ain't it passed yer bed times?" The voice cackled and giggled, causing a shiver to run down everyone's spines, both past and present Imia included, the Level E's words carrying so much malice._

_If Imia hadn't lived this once before, and revisited it a good dozen times since, she likely would have been surprised by the clear voice, untainted by fear, which rose from the twelve-year-old girl that was her past self. "Isn't it past your death day?"_

_The Level E's next words were wrapped tightly in his laughter. "Looks like little girly got some bite to her. He, he. Make good meal shall she."_

_Lilac eyes narrowed to dangerous slits and crimson energy swirled warningly around her, the rest of the team had flinched away from her at the vampire's last words, knowing that she would become angry. "I am nobody's meal." The growl that accompanied her words was something that one would associate with a wild animal rather than a young girl of twelve._

_The present Imia smirked faintly at the scene, her own team terrified, for themselves and the vampire both, she'd given them hell for that three weeks later. Her expression of faint amusement left her as the blood crazed Level E rushed from the undergrowth. The clearing, and the forest for a good mile out, rang with gun shots and the sound of metal crashing against metal as the battle raged on in the clearing, the area growing as Hunter's and the Vampire were thrown into trees, knocking them over, and, in some cases, a number of other trees in the area._

_Watching the scene from a 3__rd__ person point of view, Imia was easily able to see when the Level E decided to target Kotaru. The boys back had pulled away from the protective circle so that he could wield his kunai easier, those who wielded swords having done the same, as they needed to lessen the space between them and their target. A scream that only she could hear ripped from Imia's throat as she watched her old friend being wounded beyond the possibility of healing, knowing that he wouldn't live to see the sun rise in the coming dawn._

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><p>Shooting up in her bed with a strangled gasp, Imia was thankful that she'd long stopped screaming at being woken by a nightmare, wether she'd lived it before or not. A hand ran tiredly through her shoulder length hair, she never let it grow longer than that, and slipped out of her bead, not surprised that the blankets resembled a knotted bundle of fabric. She'd deal with it later, she decided, glancing at the alarm clock on her bedside table, which was blinking faint red numbers at her in the darkened room. 4:00. <em>Crap. Shibuya wants me at the school in an hour. Deep breaths Imia, deep breaths. Shower and an apple then off to deal with the narcissistic jerk. That's what I'll call him today, Narcissist-san or maybe just Naru? Eh, I'll figure it our later, shower and food now.<em>

Her eyes drifted to the photo of her Hunter team as she re-entered her bedroom from her shower, towelling her hair dry as she slipped her school jacket over her shoulders. It had been taken only a week before Kotaru had been killed. They'd spent the day just goofing around and being kids, since they were in effect kids, Frei had only been sixteen at the time. _I really miss them. They were always like a second family to me. _She thought, glancing at her phone. _No._ She thinks firmly, ripping her gaze from the small electronic, checking that her illusion was in place as she walked out to the main area of her apartment. An apple from the basket on the table was lifted by one hand and her book bag, which she had neglected to move into her room the previous night, was slung over her other shoulder. She walked out of the apartment with the usual mask of a friendly smile, ensuring that the door was locked securely, while the majority of her personal possessions were clothes, she did have a number of belongings that she simply couldn't replace, the photos on her nightstand perfect examples.

Pulling her thick coat around her shoulders tightly, Imia walked off towards the school building, already dreading what was to come.

Grumbling quietly to herself, Imia worked on setting up cameras until just before the bell rang, at which point she rushed out of the building with barely a nod to indicate that she'd heard Shibuya, she'd been doing her best to not speak to the sixteen year old lest she say something that she'd likely regret, as he called at her to be back directly after classes finished. She already hated working for the man and she'd only been doing so for an hour or two at most, she found herself extremely glad that this arrangement was temporary.

Classes passed by in a blur to Imia, she took notes, listened to lectures, spoke with her friends briefly in-between, and barely remembered half of what happened from the time that she left the old building that morning, she actually only half remembered stopping by the nurses office after twisting her wrist in gym and asking if she had a fever.

She cursed quietly to herself as she hurried to the old school building, some of the seniors had wanted to talk to her, but she'd refused, they hadn't liked that and were currently chasing after her. She stopped in front of the building, hoping that would deter the seniors. When it didn't, the fifteen year old rolled her eyes with a heavy sigh and slipped her foot in front of them both, tripping the seniors so that they fell head first into the side of Shibuya's van. The man in question leant out of the back door with a raised eyebrow.

"You wanted me here after classes finished," Imia stated with a shrug, she gestured faintly with her head at the more-then-slightly dazed seniors before continuing to explain. "These two wanted to talk, I told them I couldn't stop to talk with them today, they chased me here and I tripped them. Sorry if their thick skulls damaged your van."

The black haired teen shook his head and retreated into the back of the van, Imia shrugging and hopped up in after her temporary boss, who barely glanced at the faint sound of her shoes making contact with the metal of the vehicle. Casting a curious glance around the van, Imia brushed back some of her hair, which had fluttered into her face at her movement, to examine the equipment that was still being stored I the van, laptops and monitors, mostly, but she could see a number of cameras stacked neatly against one wall.

Kazuya glanced up from his laptop to watch as his employee looked at the cameras that he and Lin had stacked against one wall of the van while Tanayama had been in classes. The girl seemed to be rather curious about the thermal imagery ones in particular, as she was focussing more on them than the inferred or standard cameras. He had too grudgingly admit that the brunette was rather good at setting up the equipment last night, and earlier that day, and hadn't once complained about the weight of any of the boxes, none of which were exactly light and she was only a fifteen-year-old girl. Tanayama was certainly proving to be a curious puzzle. One he was determined to solve.

Imia brushed her fingers lightly over the thermal imagery camera wondering if she could use something similar on a contact camera to allow a Hunter to more easily find their targets during missions, though she supposed it wouldn't be much use for anyone other than a newbie, as any Hunter that had been trained would know how to use their instincts and physical senses to locate a Vampire within a two hundred meter radius easily. Most of them could probably sense a Vampire coming from six hundred meters away without to much difficulty.

A faint crunching reached her sensitive ears then, footsteps on gravel, she decided. Focussing for a moment she decided that they were coming towards the van and abandoned her examination of the cameras to leap lightly back to the ground, the small ledge between the back of the van and the gravel nowhere near enough to unbalance the fifteen year old Hunter, even if she was technically a non active Hunter, she had still been trained in the profession and retained the physical skills after she went into hiding two years ago.

Two people were walking along the gravel drive, one was a man in his late twenties, early thirties with long sandy brown hair and eyes, while the other was a woman in her mid to late twenties with reddish-brown hair that was more of a red than Imia's illusions and dark brown eyes, make-up spread thickly around her eyes and lips.

At the faint sound of another body touching the ground beside her, Imia turned to see Lin stopping beside her, Shibuya peering curiously out of the van and the two seniors unconscious on the ground. With a heavy sigh, the teenager hauled one of the seniors up into a sitting position before repeating the process with the other, giving them both a disgusted glance before shrugging and leaving them be once more. By this point, the two people had arrived at the van, giving the unconscious teens a puzzled look before turning their attentions to Imia's current co-worker and boss.

The woman had a snobbish air about her, Imia noticed as she spoke to the two men. She obviously felt herself to be above the two, Imia had had the displeasure of dealing with more than a few people like her in seven-odd years as an active Hunter. The man was only slightly more humble, his gaze holding a superior gleam and a glimmer of humour.

She doubted that they would be getting along well with the black haired men she was forced to work with, she wasn't sure, how she herself would get along with them, she had a history of making friends in the most unbelievable places. Her team were a good a example of that, Frei and Akira had loathed everything and everyone because of their pasts before Imia had found them and adopted them as siblings, Rei and Kai had been about as close to demons to society as two human seven year old children could be when they had first met, and Kotaru, Kotaru had been the worst off of the group, the authorities of his home town had been discussing a way to remove him when Imia had stepped in, saving the boy who had come to be as close to her as her own blood siblings.

With a deep, shuddering breathe, Imia closed her eyes and focussed herself back in the present, where the woman, Matsuzaki Ayako, was sneering down at Shibuya at his words regarding her profession, that of a Miko. A twitch of Imia's lips was the only indication that she agreed with her boss' words, or was even faintly amused, as she walked back over to the space she had occupied previously, perching herself easily on the edge of the back of the van, leaning her left arm against the open door nearest her position. Shibuya barely glanced at her as he and the Miko continued to exchange barbs, and neither was pulling any punches either from what could be heard of the insults, as both were adept enough to insult someone with only a simple glance.

Rolling her eyes, Imia turned her attention to the man, who was looking somewhat confused by the Miko and teenagers exchange.

"Well, I'm Tanayama Mai, temporary employee of SPR. Who are you?" Imia questioned with a faint tilt of her head.

A smile pulled at the man's lips. "Takigawa Houshou, a Monk."

Imia quirked an eyebrow at Takigawa's long hair, she knew the man wasn't lying but she also knew that she wasn't getting the whole truth. If he didn't want to talk about it, however, she wasn't going to push him.

A scoff from the Miko indicated the winner of the verbal war, and Imia once again slipped from the back of the van to stand on her feet. "Am I needed for anything, Shibuya? Or can I get my assignments finished?" The teen asked, her eyebrows lifted in question.

Her boss considered for a moment, before nodding faintly as though having decided something. "Take those cameras and set them up in the main building, there's apparently been some miner incidents on the second floor by the junior language labs and senior history rooms." He paused here to fix his Sapphire eyes on the Amber of Imia's illusion. "You know where they are?"

Imia didn't even bother to answer as she collected two cameras and headed towards the main school building to place the electronics in there designated locations.

Begging at the junior language labs, Imia set up one of the cameras in the hall, allowing easy visibility of each of the lab room doors, the other in the room itself so that both the door and window would be visible on the monitors back at base. Nodding faintly to herself the teen went back to the van, checking briefly with Shibuya if the cameras were in acceptable positions, collected another two cameras and returned to the hall to place a camera in each of the junior language labs on the second floor. Twenty minutes and another two trips between the school and Shibuya's van later and there was a camera in each of the specified language rooms. Imia had just collected the next two cameras when she noticed a girl of roughly her own age dressed in a kimono waling towards the crumbling old school building, slightly narrowing her eyes, Imia watched as the other girl paused to watch something that Imia couldn't see on the roof. As the kimono clad teen walked into the building, Imia continued her work setting up cameras in the main building.

Another half hour of walking and setting up cameras later and Imia walked into base, rotating her right shoulder, the injury that she'd taken when she fell from a tree when she was seven decided to ache just before she'd finished setting up the cameras for her boss, she'd very nearly dropped the camera she'd been carrying at the time that the ache began, barely managing to keep her grip on it until she reached the room where she was supposed to set it up. She glanced only briefly at the gathered spiritualists as she entered base, heading directly to her bag that she'd left there that morning. Keeping one ear on the conversation between Shibuya and the young blonde, Imia carefully shook two small pills from her bottle of Aspirin and downed them both at once, her nose wrinkled only faintly at the discomfort in her shoulder. Breathing out heavily the teenager turned to the group that was sitting around the room, mostly ignoring her. She could feel the clenching of muscles as her teeth pressed tightly against each other and forced herself to calm down. Picking up her bag, she moved quietly over to an unoccupied seat that was near a table and sat down heavily, taking her assignments from her files and notebooks that she had collected from the van on her way back to base.

Kazuya watched from the corner of his eye as the teenager that the Principle had forced on him as she walked in to the room, her brown eyes flickering to the group of spiritualists only for a brief moment as she walked to her bag where she had left it when she left for classes earlier in the day. With his attention split between the conversation with the priest, Brown John, Kazuya couldn't see what the girl had taken from the bag, only that she had removed some object or another from the fabric case, she stood there for a moment before turning back, brown eyes glancing over everyone in the room, a faint twitch at her jaw as she walked over to a seat by one of the tables in the room, her books and files in hand. He watched for a moment longer before focussing on his conversation once more.

Twenty minutes later and Tanayama is still pouring over her notes, jotting down new information occasionally with her left hand, her right laying on the desk in such a manner that allowed her to rotate her shoulder every few minutes. Kazuya thought for a moment, allowing his focus to drift now that he'd finished speaking to Brown-san, before standing and walking over to the teenaged girl that he would be stuck with for the entirety of the case, she was the only one that he didn't know much about, the Monk, Takigawa was easy going and carefree and enjoyed teasing the Miko, Matsuzaki, Hara Masako he knew even before meeting her, Lin he'd known since he was seven and he'd been speaking to Brown-san for the past forty-five minutes, but Tanayama was a total mystery to him.

Standing behind the girls seat Kazuya could see her hand pause as she was jotting down the answer to an algebra problem, her head turned slightly to the side for the moment of stillness before her eyes focussed solely on the sheet of paper in front of her, her hand moving once more.

The shift in air behind the seat that Imia sat in was easily picked up by her senses, trained specifically to pick up movement too fast for most human eyes to perceive, she wasn't sure if Hunter's should be considered human or something other. Turning her head faintly, she could see from the corner of her eye that it was Shibuya, the Narcissistic Jerk of a boss, his dark blue eyes faintly curious. Deciding that he wasn't much of a threat or a distraction, Imia returned to her work, once again loosing herself in the equations' her math teacher had set for her to complete before tomorrows class.

Through her detached mindset, she heard her bosses request for tea and replied in a detached manner, still thoroughly absorbed in her work. "Sure, Narcissist-san, just as soon as I've finished this."

A faint sound of choking and a sense of utter stillness brought the disguised teenager back to the world around her. Placing her pen and papers back into her bag before turning around to quirk an eyebrow at her boss. "Or would you prefer Naru?" There was a faint bite to her words that she had been holding back for the entire day. It had been a trial in restraint, her emotions were easy to hold back, she'd been doing it her whole life, pulling her strikes had been a hard task to learn, she'd learnt from a very young age that when one struck at an opponent they struck to kill, to maim, to incapacitate. Her kendo training had taught her to hold back the vast majority of her strikes power, but it had taken almost a year and a half for her to learn it and that control was still new.

Shibuya looked like he'd been hit in the face by a wet fish, repeatedly. His eyes were faintly wide and his jaw was hanging lower than it should, though he wasn't gaping openly, Imia had learned at a young age to read even the blankest facial expressions. The skill had been extremely useful when she had met Frei, the mans face had been a black mask. He still only used minimal movements of his facial muscles, speaking less than anyone else on the team. Imia shook her head mentally in order to bring herself back to the present, knowing that now wasn't the time to lose herself in the past.

A faint clicking sounded in the room, aggravating Imia's headache, which had been absent until she had started hauling cameras. Flicking her eyes around the room she was able to catch a glimpse of a small dragon-like creature hovering over her boss' shoulder, it was gone from her vision in the next second, she could tell that it was still there. The pounding on the inside of her skull had grown worse with the small creatures disappearance from sight and the girl lifted her left hand to her forehead, resting the heel of her palm against the ache, her eyes closed in an attempt to ease the pain.

With a heavy sigh, the young Kiryuu opened her eyes again and dropped her hand back to her lap. "You wanted tea, Naru?" She questioned as she rose slowly to her feet, doing her best to ignore the pounding of her skull. The older teen nodded, still looking faintly shocked and irritated, Imia gave only a faint hum in indication that she'd heard him before walking out of the room and building, heading towards the office to collect the student kitchens keys, knowing that it would be a shorter trip that the main kitchens and the staff kitchen was off limits to all of the students without a pass. Ten minutes and a short conversation with the office attendant later and Imia was walking into the student kitchens to brew the tea her boss had requested. She decided to go ahead and brew tea for the entire group, knowing that they'd all still be at base when she returned.

The youngest Kiryuu walked back into base twenty-six and a half minutes after she had left with a tray of tea and cookies held in her hands. She placed the tray on a desk and handed out the cups of steaming liquid to the group of spiritualists before taking her own cup and sitting down at her desk to look over her history assignment, doubting that she'd have time to get it done after Naru let her leave for her apartment, unless she wanted to pull an all nighter.

Her eyes flickered over to her boss, examining him for a moment._ He seems familiar. Where have I seen him before? _She thought to herself, frustrated by the fact that she couldn't remember where she had seen him before. As a Hunter, it was practically suicide to forget a name or face, and Kiryuu Imia was better than most at remembering obscure details about people that she'd only seen once in passing than any other member of the Association could about someone they'd known for their entire life. Shaking her head Imia took a sip of her tea, letting her shoulders drop slightly at the relief that the hot liquid gave her from the constant pounding on her skull and the ache in her shoulder lessened, even if only slightly.

Directing her gaze to the young blonde out of the corner of her eye. She knew him, and wasn't about to forget him. Brown John was probably the first friend that she'd ever made, despite the fact that the boy was the same age as her brother. She felt a pang in her heart at the knowledge that she wouldn't be able to reveal who she really was to her friend without the rest of the people here from gaining that knowledge themselves. Bitting her lip the girl turned her full attention back to her history assignment.

Imia's hand paused it's movement across the page of her notebook as the lights flickered violently and a sudden chill ran through the room almost three hours later, the teens short skirt and school issued jacket weren't the warmest clothes and her thick coat was in her gym locker were she'd left it that morning. Glancing up at the other occupants of the room it appeared that everyone had stilled at the sudden changes in the immediate vicinity, Lin's head having turned halfway from the monitors to through cautious glances to every corner of the room, Naru's Sapphire eyes were narrowed and darting about the old walls like a panicked animals, the Monk's hands were twitching were he stood in a position that the young Hunter knew gave him a good view of the entire room while also allowing him to act a moments notice, John-san and the girl in the kimono, Imia hazily remembered her being addressed as Hara-san, were still seated in chairs near each other, there eyes flickering around the worn walls in search of the cause of the drastic changes in the room.

Imia noticed the cause at the same time as Hara-san. Standing in the corner of the room was a figure, blurred around the edges and cloaked in shadows, it was impossible for Imia to identify the figure as more than humanoid, and that was a term that she used loosely in this scenario. Having stood at the sight of the figure, the young Kiryuu fell to her knees in pain, bile rising in her throat at the increased pounding on the inside of her skull. She made no attempt to hold back the bile as the pain increased and figure disappeared with an inhuman shriek.

When the lights flickered back on and the occupants of the room could see clearly past their own noses, Naru's eyes fell almost instantly on the figure of the high school student that was working for him. The girl was kneeling on the floor, half curled into herself with her head in her hands, her chocolate brown eyes closed, vomit dripping from the corners of her mouth and chin, clinging to the girls uniform and pooled in front of the girls' knees. Even from halfway across the room the boy could tell that her breathing was uneven and more in line with pained gasps.

Taking cautious steps towards the girl, Naru, and he couldn't hate the girl for giving him that nickname, carefully placed a hand on her shoulder, ignoring the flinch that he received from her in response. "Are you alright, Mai?"

His question seemed to have snapped the younger teen from where ever she had been as her head turned slightly to view him from the corner of liquid chocolate eyes, a curious eyebrow raised slightly. "I will be." She replied quietly. "Help me up, would you? I've got a spare set of clothes in my gym locker."

Naru did as was requested, half lifting, half supporting the girl, waiting for a moment as she checked her balance before removing his hand from her arm.

"I'll go with you, Tanayama-san." Hara-san stated, rising to her feet and straitening her kimono as she walked towards the other girl, careful not to step in the puddle of sick. She took the brown haired teens forearm and began leading her out of the building.

Imia barely registered the gentle touch of the younger girl on her arm, cautiously checking her balance every other step and wincing at the soft sounds that the two sets of footsteps brought to her throbbing skull, glad that the pain induced nausea had at the very least dulled to a point that her training could block from her mind, easing the strain slightly by reciting the lullaby that her mother would always sing her when se was young in her mind. Hara-san waited for Imia's directions once they arrived at the gym, not knowing where the locker rooms were located. Gently shaking her arm slightly the young Kiryuu caught the mediums attention and with a small series of glances requested that her arm be released. Hara-san complied, following Imia as she walked steadily along the hall towards the locker room.

Once inside the locker room, Imia headed straight to her locker, entering the code to open it and wincing at the sharp click the lock made as it released. The girl removed the set of clothes from within and placed them on a nearby bench. "There's something you want to ask me." She whispered. The words were a statement, not a question, and both girls knew it.

The younger teen replied in kind. "That isn't your natural appearance."

Imia nodded, a faint vertical twitch of her head. She debated silently for a moment, before closing her eyes and allowing her illusion to flash briefly out of existence, letting her companion glimpse her true appearance.

The young medium nodded and made herself comfortable on one of the benches. "And Tanayama Mai…" She trailed off as the older girl removed her uniform, revealing the tattoo on her lower back.

"Is just an alias." Imia completed the sentence, glancing over shoulder as she slipped into the clothes that she'd removed from her locker. "My real name is Kiryuu Imia. I went into hiding just over two years ago, right after I received the seal on my back." She paused here, walking over to the showers and filling one of the basins part way, scooping some water into her hands, she washed her face of the remnants of vomit. Her clothes were then quickly dunked into the remaining water and left there as Imia walked back over to the bench that Hara-san had seated herself upon. "It suppresses the poison that was on the blade that caused the original wound. When the poison grows to be more powerful than the seal, if I haven't fully recovered, I'll become a puppet for the one who gave me the wound. It's sort of like an external possession from what I've seen of the puppets."

Her companion nodded, an expression of shock on her face that she covered with the sleeve of her kimono.

Hara-san asked questions for the few minutes they were in the locker room, Imia cleaning her uniform as best she could with a basin of water before they both left for the laundry room just off of the teachers lounge to deposit the completely soaked clothing items.

Imia was silent for a few moments as the two girls walked back towards the old building, before she decided to speak. "It's nice to have someone who knows the truth Masako-chan, it's been years since I last had a chance to talk about my past." At the younger girls startled glance a small smile slipped into place on the youngest Kiryuu's lips. "None of my friends know who I really am and my only one member if my team knows what alias I'm using and where I am. I've never really been alone before the attack, I always had my team and brothers, even when my parent were gone for a long time." The sadness that flickered in Imia's eyes had her new friend placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

The two smiled at each other and continued on towards the cracked building, talking quietly about school for the rest of the time it took them to arrive in the room that Naru had set up as base.

"Hey Naru." Imia greeted, smirking in victory at the twitching eyebrow of her boss. She could hear the quiet laugh of Masako-chan from behind the girl's kimono sleeve as they walked further into the room, Masako-chan heading to her previous seat and Imia to her bag, her headache returning from simply being in the room again.

Imia blinked slowly just as she reached her bag, a thought coming to her. _When I was young, I would always get headaches and become nauseous whenever there were spirits around. Maybe…No, I wont get my hopes up._ Taking a deep breathe, the young teen sat heavily at the desk, noting faintly that someone had cleaned up the puddle of sick while she and Masako-chan were gone, taking up her pen and continuing to work through her assignments.

The sun had set before the shadowed figure of the spirit reappeared. Masako-chan pointed it out helpfully for the few in the room who were unable to see the spirit. The Miko seemed to be more focussed on the rapidly paling form of Imia than helping out, though the girl was grateful that someone was there with her.

Feeling the nausea rising in her stomach, Imia began humming quietly, heedless of the pain that was building in her head. Her voice grew slightly then, singing the lullaby just above a whisper, knowing that it would help.

"_Watch as the snow dances in the moonlight, reflecting distant memories._

_Let night sing, the stars alight, till morning comes to greet you._

_Dance with those flakes of snow as memories swirl, sing together as the moon smiles down on you._

_Listen now to the night's song as she calls to her lost memories._

_Morning dawns with a swirl of forgotten joys, lights glinting in the darkened halls of your mind as you remember dancing in the moonlight._

_Raindrops glisten with the moon's tears until you can join her again._

_Voices echo through the light seeking the dancer who was there when the snow swirled happily, ignorant of the memories within."_

She repeated the words twice more before growing silent and simply watching the events unfold. The Monk uttering a sutra at the distracted spirit, whose eyes were fixed firmly on the girl who had been singing only a moment before. The prayer sending the spirit on easily.

Masako-chan moved over to Imia as quickly as her kimono allowed, a curious glint in her eyes as she sat down next to the other females in the room. Imia smiled slightly to show that she was fine and didn't mind her asking whatever was on her mind. "What was that song, Mai-chan?"

All the attention of the room was fixed solely on the two teens then, the men all raising an eyebrow at the familiarity of the address. "It's a lullaby that my brother would sing for me when I had a nightmare, it's always calmed me down. I guess that it always will to." There was a faint smile on Imia's face as she remembered better times, when she would wake up in the middle of the night after have a bad dream and walk down the hall to her brother's room. He'd always be awake and waiting for her, when she was very young she could vaguely remember him coming into her room, and if she wasn't in his room after she'd had a nightmare he'd still come into her room so that he could calm her down and get her back to sleep again. She wondered then if they would ever do that again. It had been so long since she'd seen him. Almost four years had past since the last time they actually spoke, though she'd snuck over to catch a glimpse of him just over three years ago. She quickly pushed those memories to the back of her mind, she didn't need to burst into tears here and now, if Naru or the others saw, she'd just be asked questions that she couldn't answer.

They all separated a few minutes later, Imia gathering her things and heading back to her lonely apartment for dinner before heading to sleep.

When she woke the next morning, something felt almost hollow within her heart, though for the life of her she couldn't figure out why. She took her time preparing for school, knowing that she didn't have to hurry as she had ceased to work for Shibuya the instant the case was over. _Is that it, then?_ She questioned herself silently. _I'm not working for N-Shibuya anymore? _She closed her eyes then, stopping the tears she had felt forming from falling through force of will alone. She had noticed the way she'd almost called him Naru, and it frustrated her. She only used nicknames for the people who were closest to her, her brothers and her team had been the only ones that she had given a nickname to, Nanahime didn't really count as she had only shortened the name, but Shibuya she had called Naru simply to annoy the older boy. Now she found herself still referring to him as Naru even though she would likely never see him again.

A swift shake of her head dispelled all thoughts of the boy and allowed her to continue preparing for the day.

When she arrived at the school though, she saw a familiar black van parked at the curb, an even more familiar teen leaning against the door, blue eyes searching the students that were milling around the front of the school, waiting for classes to begin. Bitting her lip Imia thought for a moment before sighing heavily as she came to a decision. She walked over to the van and cleared her throat to draw the older teen's attention to her.

Shibuya turned to her with a slightly irritated frown adorning his handsome face, the expression softened as he saw her. "You forgot your pay check." He muttered gruffly and held out the piece of paper in question.

Imia took it with a raised eyebrow, knowing that he wouldn't have been waiting out here for her just to give her a slip of paper that entitled her to the stated sum.

Shibuya's eyes were focussed on the pavement as he continued. "I was wondering if you'd like to work at SPR part-time." The words were a statement but Imia recognised them for what they were.

"I think I'd like that. Thankyou." She answered the not-quite-a-question after a moment.

He nodded and gave her the offices address. "Be there at five pm, and try not to be late."

"Stupid Narcissist." She grumbled after him as he slipped into the van and it drove off down the street.

With a shake of her head and a small smile, Kiryuu Imia headed into the school building in a much better mood then she'd left her apartment in.

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><p><strong>And there is the end of Case 1. We have some more informatio on Imia's past, don't go thinking that's all of it. Next chapter starts the beggining of the 2nd case and a few notable events. More of Imia's past will be revealed. I'm going to smile evilly now and tell you to have fun while exerting your supirior patiance. Case 2 Part 1 should be up around the 24th.<strong>


	4. Case 2 Within Castle Walls Part 1

**Okay, here we are. Case 2 Part 1 for The Hunter and The Hunted. Not really much to do with the case itself though, that really start in the next chapter, which may be a little on the late side, like a week.**

**Anyway I don't own Ghost Hunt or Vampire Knight.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Case 2 - Within Castle Walls Part 1 - Castle Spirit<strong>

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><p>It had been almost two months since Imia began officially working at the SPR office and in that time she'd made friends with just about everyone on the team and integrated them all into her makeshift family, as it had been close to four years since she had actually been with the last living member of her blood family. She had cousins, which she had never met, only hearing stories about them from her grandfather when she had been young. She gave a small, sarcastic smile at the remembrance of her family and her two makeshift families that she had formed around her, for her sake and theirs.<p>

Her team, the one that she'd formed back when she first started Hunting, had all been more-or-less alone with the twins having only each other left in their family and Imia herself still having her parents and both brothers at the point that she'd first met them. Frei she had given a name and somewhere to belong. Kotaru, her breathe still caught every time she thought of him, she had given a reason to live and shown him that there were still people out there who cared. The twins, Rei and Kai, had taken the friendship she had offered them, as well as the life that she had saved them from loosing. Akira, she remembered with a wince, had been given a home and safety, at least as much safety as one can get when ones line of work requires that you hunt down rouge Vampires. Frei and Akira had taken the roll of older siblings for everyone, acting as parents most of the last few years that the team had been complete. A wince pulled at Imia's features every time she remembered that she had been the one who ripped the team apart more than it had already been. Kai, the only member of her team who knew were she was, had told her the last time they met that he wasn't sure what would have been better, the team thinking her to be dead or them knowing that she was alive but unable to contact her unless she herself first contacted them. Kotaru had been a playful cousin who always had a smile on his face and a positive word to say. The twins were siblings who had a knack for electronics; they had been the ones who came up with the idea for the contact cameras, though Imia had helped them set them up.

The SPR team had done much the same thing. Masako-chan was much like Rei, only instead of putting up a cheerful mask to hide her feelings, Masako-chan used a snobby attitude to hide how lonely she really was, it was one of the reasons that she and Imia got along so well, they both knew what it was like to have no-one who knew the truth about who they were, and had become a sister to Imia. Lin-san, who still had a tendency of ignoring her every chance he got, was the silent uncle who always stepped in when things went wrong on cases. The Monk, Takigawa or as the team had taken to calling him Bou-san, was a cross between a mischievous older brother and a father. While Ayako was something of a cross between a fussing mother and teasing older sister, she certainly did plenty of both every chance she got. John, as always, was another big brother, Imia had to hold back more then one nii-san when she was talking to the blonde, as she knew that if she called him that, he would know in an instant who she was and would likely report the information to Ro-nii the first chance he has to pull out a phone. She wasn't quite sure were Naru fit into the little family that was SPR, nowhere she tried to place him felt right, he wasn't a brother or a cousin, she had even tried uncle.

A shake of the head and a groan later the teen was focussed on the empty office once more, empty only because Lin never left his own office and Naru was still in his, and wouldn't be out for another fifteen minutes. Half-past one he always came out to look over case files, along with a number of maps.

Imia throws a glance at the piles of cases that lay on her desk, sorted neatly into two piles, one for the cases that Naru had rejected for the rest of the team to look over when they decided to turn up at the office, the other was for the cases that had been brought in by the rest of the team and clients that had been by, seeing either Lin-san or Imia herself. A heavy sigh escaped her as she heard the gentle tinkle of the bell over the door leading to the outside world, her eyes glancing up at the door in question, only to widen a moment later when she saw that it was Masako-chan who had walked in, a thick bruise forming around her throat. Imia knew that her friend's home-life was far from perfect, but she had no idea it was this bad.

The two had talked about Masako-chan's family on several occasions but she had never mentioned it getting anywhere near this violent, she'd had a few cuts on her arms and the rare bruise marring her pale skin, the sort of thing that could be easily explained away as a moment of carelessness or an accident. This one had obviously been in a serious attempt on Masako-chan's life.

Standing swiftly from her desk chair, Imia herded her friend into the kitchen, which she had claimed as her territory almost as soon as she was through the door to the main office, nobody dared go further than to poke their head in there now, the Monk had been the slowest to learn and as such had been sporting thick bruises for almost a full week. Naru and Lin had simply accepted the arrangement, Naru calling for tea from his office instead of having to get up and get it himself and Lin receiving a cup at the same time. Both men had adjusted swiftly and silently.

"What happened, Masako-chan?" Imia questioned as she retrieved the first aid kit that she had placed in one of the cupboards above the sink, taking a bottle of Aspirin while she was there. As Imia turned around, she noticed that her friend was glancing sadly at the floor tiles, ignoring the question and avoiding looking at the older girl. "Masako." She stated tiredly. Her friend looked up quickly then, though she moved her neck as little as was possible, knowing that Imia only ever called someone by their name without an honorific when she was being deadly serious or she held a greet deal of dislike or affection for someone, and even then it was rare to hear a name without an honorific.

Masako tilted her head as Imia directed to allow the older girl to examine the extent of her injuries. "He had been drinking again and hadn't been happy before he left the house. I was the obvious target." Her words were quiet but Imia heard them, barely containing a snarl as she saw the depth of the bruising.

"You're not going back there." The words fell from the young Kiryuu's lips in a cold tone that she usually reserved for fights, with Vampire's or street thugs who thought that she would be an easy target didn't matter, it coated the order and made it clear that even if Masako argued with her and attempted to return she wouldn't get far. Imia had long ago proved to be the more adapt at any kind of conflict, verbal or physical, it made no difference to the constantly alert teenager.

Masako's grey eyes saddened faintly then. "I don't have anywhere else to go though, he made sure of it." She gulped, ignoring the pain that flared in her throat, at the positively evil glint that had taken up residence in her friend's eyes, making the Amber of the illusion sparkle a dangerous golden colour.

"You can stay with me and if he tries to get you back…" She trailed off, letting the faint spark of crimson energy that flittered briefly around her do all the explaining necessary before reaching out and gently running her fingers over the bruise, smearing a thick paste over the discoloured flesh. Giving a satisfied nod, Imia carefully wrapped a bandage around the neck of her friend, handing over two Aspirin from the bottle as she did so.

The younger girl downed the pills gratefully with a gulp of water from the glass that was passed to her, doing her best to ignore the uncomfortable scratch of the bandage around her neck.

Heaving yet another heavy sigh, Imia gently placed her hand on the bandage, her palm barely brushing the fabric, and focussed on the PK that she held at her command. Her stores of PK may still be drastically lower than they had been, and she may have been restricted to using what of the energy she had for reading the imprints and tendrils that remained in an area, and then only the strongest of them, but she could still manipulate the tendrils of power to create a barrier or illusion around a small area, nothing much larger than human size. She was creating and maintaining her own illusion without the aid of the power that she had stored in her earrings now, which she took as a positive sign that she was recovering after draining her stores down to nothing two years ago.

Another nod later and Masako was directed to the couches in the office while Imia set about preparing tea, knowing that her boss would be calling for a fresh cup soon. Sure enough just as the kettle whistled, Naru emerged from his office with a call of, "Mai, Tea." It had irritated Imia that he didn't even say please, but she'd gotten used to the Narcissist's lack of simple courtesy. Ignoring the young man, she continued with preparing the tea.

A twinge of pain in her shoulder had Imia hissing quietly, the old injury hadn't hurt badly enough to get more than a twitch of facial muscles since she was eleven. Now, as pain flared to greater heights than she'd felt in over three years, Imia found herself gripping the counter top hard enough for her knuckles to turn white and leave small imprints just to keep upright, her teeth digging deeply into the inside of her cheeks to prevent a cry of agony leaping from her lips, blood trickling from the cuts that were forming making her face twist in distaste as the coppery liquid filled her mouth and trickled over her taste buds. As soon as she was able to move without the aide of a counter the teenager hurried out to distribute the three cups of tea, sparing only a moment to spit the blood in her mouth into the sink, most days she would have a cup out in the office with Naru, exchanging verbal barbs while they dealt with their respective piles of work, today however she had chosen not to, and she found herself grateful of that fact. Placing the final cup on Lin-san's desk, she didn't even wait for the usual nod of thanks and simply hurried back to her domain, where she could safely loose herself in the memories that were threatening to overwhelm her.

She had been playing in the garden with her brothers, John, Rei and Kai, the twins having been visiting at the time, Kotaru, who had been passing by the Kiryuu mansion when they had been heading outside, and the Kuran siblings, Kaname and Yuuki. Everyone had been enjoying the sun, even if Zero and Ichiru had been wary of the vampire, unaware that Yuuki, who had had her vampiric powers and memories sealed by her mother, was in fact Kaname's little sister, Kai, Rei and Kotaru having gotten to know both siblings while staying at the Kuran mansion only the year before. John was always just a naturally trusting person and didn't mind in the least that a member of their little group was still drinking human blood. Her injury had occurred when she and Ichiru had gotten into an argument, it had been over something stupid and pointless that she couldn't even remember now, she'd run off crying at the end of it, her brother calling her a baby as she darted into the trees that lined the back of the property. She had gotten lost in the trees, unable to use her instincts to find her way out because of how distraught she was. Three days later Zero found her, curled up in one of the trees with a thick gash running between her elbow and wrist. It had taken him over an hour to get her down. She'd lost her footing and slipped on the bark of the tree, falling down to the ground heavily and landing on her right arm. She knew that she'd blacked out from the pain, she didn't need her brother telling her when she woke up, her head resting on his chest with his arms wrapped tightly around her and his own head resting on hers as he slept. They'd stumbled out of the forest a day and a half later, both covered in mud and Imia's arm and side coated with a thick layer of dried blood, her mother had given her very strict orders to stay in bed for the rest of the day. Her shoulder had been set back into place when she woke the next morning, Zero sitting beside her bed, his head drooped slightly in sleep and his hand clutching hers so tightly his knuckles had paled to almost white. It wasn't until that night that she found out that Zero had punched his twin; Ichiru had been sporting the bruise for anther three weeks before it even began to fade, and she'd made them both promise not to fight with each other again, no matter what happened. They'd all been confined to the house for almost three months straight with only Imia's team and John stopping by to give them news from the outside world, Kaname had been advised to keep his distance from the Kiryuu twins and Yuuki had gotten a nasty cold, Cross-san, who had taken the girl in and was a member of the Hunter's Association, had summarily banned her from travelling so far away, after confining her to weeks of bed rest. A thin scar was still visible on her arm after almost ten years, though it, like all of the others, was hidden behind the layers of illusions that Imia had cloaked herself in.

With a mirthless chuckle the teen swallowed two Aspirin as she hurried around the kitchen, putting away medical supplies, running water into the sink to wash away the evidence of blood and taking out tea cups and setting the water to boil again in preparation of the client she could sense coming up the stairs to the office.

Just as the whistle sounded that the water was boiled a faint tinkling reached Imia's ears, a small smirk of satisfaction slipped onto her lips as she prepared the tea and left the kitchen. She could feel Naru's Sapphire eyes fixed curiously on her and Masako-chan's faintly irritated glance but ignored them both, simply placing a cup of tea in front of them both and another across from them, where a man in his late forties with greying hair and dulled brown eyes was making himself comfortable.

"Thankyou…" The man said, fixing his dull eyes on Imia.

Her keen eyes caught something in those eyes that she was all too familiar with, sorrow and a great deal of stress. A small smile flittered onto her face as she settled into 'client mode'. "Tanayama Mai, I'm an assistant-slash-receptionist-slash-tea-brewer-slash-cleaner here."

Imia's smile widened faintly as the man laughed quietly, glad that he was amused and knowing that it was difficult to find any amusement in the world around you when you were so filled with your own sorrow and more than the average businessman's yearly stress load at once. "Tanayama-san. I'm Ikari Rentaro; my family owns a castle in the mountains."

Both Naru and Masako-chan's eyebrows rose at that, Imia simply tilted her head faintly like a curious cat.

Ikari-san chuckled at their expressions and nodded in confirmation. "Areas of the building have fallen into disrepair but whenever we try to repair the areas something will happen, either to one of the workers that had been hired or a member of my family who was living at the castle at the time. The last few times deaths have occurred, twice it was members of the construction crew and another three times it was members of my family."

Eyes narrowed faintly, Imia glanced at Naru, whose eyes held a faint hint of shock. She nudged his ankle lightly; when he glanced at her out of the corner of his dark blue eyes she gave him a threatening glare and managed to convey that she would poison his tea if he didn't take the case. By the quiet gulp that she could hear, the older teen had understood the warning and didn't plan on testing the young assistants temper. Many things Naru may lack, but self-preservation is not one of them.

"We'll need three rooms, one for our base and the others for sleeping." Naru said, his eyes glinting faintly in fear.

Ikari-san smiled faintly. "How many people are going to be coming?" He questioned.

Imia's eyebrows shot up into her hairline as she caught a flicker of something familiar. A frown marred her face as she turned to walk over to her desk, leaving Naru and Masako to conclude the meeting with the client. _What was that? I know that I've felt it before._ She thought tiredly. With a shake of her head, she brought herself back to reality and offered a smile to Ikari-san as he was leaving. The older man returned the smile with a faint one of his own and Imia could feel her own smile widening at the renewed glint of hope in his eyes, lighting them from the dull muddy brown that they had been throughout the entire meeting to a light shade of Amber brown.

A questioning sound rose in her throat as she heard Naru calling her from across the office.

The heavy irritated sigh that her boss gave was easily heard by the young psychic. "Call the others and tell them to be here at ten a.m.. And remind them not to be late this time." He ordered before turning his attention back to his papers.

"Yes sir, Narcissist-sama." Imia returned with a sarcastic bite to her words and a roll of her eyes.

From the faintly amused light in Masako-chan's eyes Imia could tell that Naru's expression was something to look at. A small smile flittered back onto her own features as she turned to the phone on her desk so that she could begin informing the rest of the team, telling them that Naru wanted the at the office at nine a.m., it was the easiest way to ensure they would be at the office at ten.

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><p>It was two tired and overworked teenage girls who walked back to Imia's apartment that evening, Masako having been talked into helping with the paperwork that littered the office in neat piles. She also managed to get roped into covering for the disguised psychic when she left around mid-afternoon. What Imia had done during the time she was out of the office was anyone's guess.<p>

Slipping the key to the front door from her skirt easily, Imia opened the door, gesturing her new roommate to enter ahead of her. The younger girl entered the apartment and looked around the spacious entry.

The quiet sound of the door clicking closed as Imia stepped into the apartment caused the young medium to turn, eyebrow raised in question.

"Well, this is the apartment. It's fairly large so there shouldn't be any real problem with space. Your room is on the left of the main area." A hand gave a sweeping motion in the direction indicated even as slim shoulders lifted in a slight shrug. "My room is on the opposite side, so don't worry about making to much noise, it doesn't really carry that much in here anyway. Kitchen is just through those doors." Again, a hand gesture accompanied the words. "And the combined living room dining room is right beside it. There's a bathroom attached to each of the bedrooms."

About the only word, that poor Masako could formulate was an almost strangled, "How?"

Imia shrugged again, letting her illusion dissipate with the usual flash of crimson energy. "The Kiryuu family was pretty well off, so I got a fair amount after my parent's death, even if the majority of the money and all of the properties were left to Ro-nii. Hunting is a rather lucrative profession, it needs to be what with all the injuries that Hunters receive on most missions and the high death toll, Naru's paying me plenty as well. And school hasn't made much of a dent in that." Imia sighed sadly then, walking further into the apartment, Masako trailing behind the silver haired girl. "If you need anything, clothes for instance, your more than welcome to take the credit card on the counter in the kitchen, I've got another one I can use. For tonight and tomorrow morning you can borrow some of my clothes."

There was such sadness in the silver haired psychic's voice that Masako felt a small amount of pity mixed with sympathy, she understood what it was to be alone. Her mother had given her clothes and food, tended to her injuries when she could and ensured that she had a day or two to recover from her fathers treatment, never had she had the chance to truly experience love.

The younger psychic was drawn out of her thoughts at the sound of a door opening. The room beyond was neatly ordered, a desk sat in one corner with a laptop closed on its surface, a notebook and history text sitting to onside of the computer while a photo in an ornate frame and a small calendar sat on the opposite, a bed with pale blue sheets and a lilac pillow was resting against the wall opposite, a bedside table held two more photos in plain oak frames beside it, a door leading to one of the apartment bathrooms was opened on the wall between the desk and closet. While not overly elaborate Masako had to admit that it was a beautiful room with the few paintings that adorned the walls depicting mountain scenery and rivers.

Masako was so lost in her assessment of the bedroom that she only noticed her friend standing beside her with a set of clothes over one arm and set of bedding in the other when the older girl cleared her throat, causing the black haired girl to spin around with a squeak.

Imia simply shook her head and handed over the jeans and loose fitting shirt before walking out of the room, closing the door lightly behind her. The invitation to change in Imia's bedroom while the girl herself went to set up the room that Masako would be staying in was left hanging unsaid in the air.

Changing out of her kimono and into the more practical western clothes took the young medium the bare minimum amount of time it took to drop the traditional attire to the cold wooden floor. She would be thankful to never wear a kimono again, she'd seen enough of them over the six years she was forced to wear them already. Once fully dressed in the rather comfortable clothes that she had been lent, the young medium walked over to Imia's bedside table, curious of the contents of the two simple frames that stood on the wooden surface.

The smiling silver haired girl was easily recognised as Imia in both of the photos, she supposed that the group of silver haired people in one of them was the older psychic's family, and the other group was the friends she had heard of from the stories that Imia had told her during the time that they'd known each other.

Imia silently entered her room to find that her friend was looking at the photos on her bedside table. It took the youngest Kiryuu sibling only a moment to decide that she would answer whatever questions she could if Masako asked them. Therefore, it was silent feet that the silver haired teen crossed the wooden floor to sit on the edge of her bed, clearing her throat again when she was comfortably situated with her legs crossed at the knee.

The faint start with which her friend turned was more than worth the small amount of effort that it had taken to silence the gentle sound of her sock covered feet.

Breathing slightly heavier than normal and wincing at the discomfort that rose around her throat as they pulled more than slightly against raw nerves it took Masako a few moments to manage a few words. "Are they…" She gestured at the picture of the silver haired family and no more words were needed to convey her question.

"My parents and brothers." Imia confirmed with a nod. "That photo was taken the day before my birthday."

Something in Imia's voice told Masako not to press the subject further, knowing that her parents at least were dead. "What about the other group?" The medium inquired instead.

There was a faint smile on Imia's lips at that as her lilac eyes turned to the photo in question. "My team. Though they were really more of a second family than work colleagues, they still are." With a shake of her head, Imia pointed out each of her team members. "The twins are Hina Rei and Kai, awful cooks, they can barely boil water without setting something on fire or burning the attempt, exceptional fighters though. The blonde is Frei, a more silent man I have yet to meet; his vocal cords were damaged before I found him so he has an excuse well known to everyone. The other girl is Kurai Akira, who enjoys a good fight as much as most of the kendo club at school, she has a nasty right hook too, so if you ever meet her, do not make her mad at you. Our last member was Getsui Kotaru; he was a year older than me. Kotaru died about a week after that was taken."

The faint sound that Masako made at the information was one of understanding and sympathy. The young medium through her grey eyes around the room, looking for a distraction. She found one in the digital clock that lazy blinked red numbers at the two teens. "I think I'll head off to bed, I want to go and get some clothes before heading into the office in the morning."

"Sure." Imia rose from her bed, making sure that Masako found her way to her room without trouble, set of pyjamas in hand, before returning to her own room for the night. Knowing that she would get very little sleep anyway the young psychic continued working on her project.

* * *

><p>When dawn broke over the city Imia considered it an achievement to have gotten three hours sleep, a quick shower and cup of coffee ensured that she was fully awake as she continued her project were she had left it not long after midnight.<p>

Two hours later and Imia was sitting in the kitchen sipping her third coffee of the morning and munching on a slice of toast. As the last of the steaming liquid was drained from the cup Masako came out of her bedroom, grabbing a slice of toast from the plate on the table as Imia moved over to the kitchen and brewed a cup of tea before returning to the table.

Dropping the tea off with the medium Imia walked to her room to collect her bag, packed and ready for the case, slinging the fabric case over her shoulder she returned to the main area of the apartment with her illusion in place. The sight that greeted her upon returning to the main area of the apartment was one of Masako tapping her foot impatiently by the door, a small suitcase in her hand and wearing the same jeans and shirt, that she had been lent the night before. The two slipped on their shoes and left for one of the earlier opening shops.

At 9:45, exactly the two youngest members of SPR walked in the door of the office to find that only John, Naru and Lin were there yet. Naru grunted and Imia took that as her cue to go and get tea, leaving her bag with Masako and offering an apologetic smile to John.

The teacups on the tray that she walked from the kitchen with were quickly drunk, Naru having taken three cups himself, causing the disguised teen to shake her head almost fondly and simply walk over to the kitchen with the empty cups to wash them, having no clue when anyone would be at the office again.

Just before ten, the last of the SPR team hurried into the office, apologising for being late while arguing with each other.

A glare from Naru silenced the two. "Now that everyone is here we can go over the files quickly and leave."

Nobody argued with their boss, though Imia went along with it more out of amusement over the others reactions than fear of her teenage boss.

_The castle is over three hundred years old, so it's relatively young considering some of the other places I've seen over the years. The east wings seem to be the psychic hotspots from the information that we have. This activity began almost fifty years ago, though it has gotten worse over the past three or so years. _Imia thought as she read over the files, a small frown pulling at her lips, something about the time the activity started to worsen made her feel uneasy.

She was startled from her thoughts as Naru announced that they were leaving. Imia had to shake her head slightly to clear it as she followed the rest of the team out of the office, Lin-san locking the door behind him, and down to the company van and Bou-san's car. John and Masako slipped into the back seats of the Monks car, while Bou-san and Ayako took the front. This arrangement left Imia with her boss and Chinese co-worker in the van.

Knowing that it was likely to be a very silent ride Imia pulled her well worn copy of Shakespeare from her bag as she slid into her seat, absently clicking her seat belt into its proper position as she flipped through the pages, looking for the last place she had been reading, upon finding her place the teenager settled back for a long ride.


End file.
